The flight into Egypt and the slaying of the innocents.

(Matt. 2:13-23).

After the wise men’s departure, the Lord’s Angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and directed him to take the Infant and His mother and flee to Egypt, which he did at night. Egypt was located southwest of Judea, requiring a journey of some 100 miles to its border. At the time, it was also a Roman province where many Jews lived; they had their own synagogues and as Herod’s authority did not extend there, the Holy Family, having stopped at one of their compatriot’s house, could feel themselves out of danger. To the question as to why didn’t Christ save Himself from Herod’s executioners, Saint Golden-tongue responds: “If the Lord started to perform miracles in His initial years, then He would not have been acknowledged as a Human” (Discourse on Matthew 7). Many wonderful traditions have been preserved regarding the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt. One of them proclaims that when Joseph, God-Infant and His Mother entered an idolater’s temple that contained 365 idols, these idols fell and shattered on the ground: thus the prophecy about them came to pass “Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud (on the arms of the Blessed Virgin Mary), and cometh unto Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence” (Isaiah 19:1). In that the Child-Jesus had to flee specifically to Egypt and return from there, is seen by the Evangelist as the fulfilment of Hosea’s prophecy: “…called My Son out of Egypt” (11:1). While in reality, these words refer to the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, because they were chosen by God, the Jewish people were a symbol of the true, one and only Son of God, Jesus Christ. Consequently, the departure of the Jewish people served as a symbol of Jesus Christ’s recall from Egypt. In the Old Testament, everything had a symbolic meaning, everything served as symbols of events in the New Testament.

When the wise men failed to return to Jerusalem, Herod became angry, felt “deceived” and ridiculed by them. This produced a greater wrath in him. Having learned from the Magi that the star appeared to them over a year ago, he concluded that even if the Infant is more than 12 months old, He would be less than 2 years old. That’s why he issued the brutal decree to slay all infants “from 2 years old and under” in Bethlehem and its outlying regions, reckoning that among them will be Jesus Christ. According to tradition, there were 14,000 infants slain, whose memory is celebrated by our Church on the 29^th of December, as martyrs for Christ. According to the witness of the Jewish historian Joseph Flavius, similar savagery was completely in character with Herod. It is well known that from a groundless suspicion, he ordered his wife to be strangled and his 3 sons put to death. When Augustus was informed of this, he responded: “It is better to be an animal in Herod’s house than a son.” To this day, people are shown grottos on the outskirts of Bethlehem, where mothers with their infants in their arms, in attempting to escape Herod’s soldiers, were butchered together with their children. In the slaying of Infants, the Evangelist sees the fulfilment of Jeremiah’s prophecy: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping,” (Jer. 31:15). In these words, the Prophet Jeremiah describes the calamity and grief of the Jewish people, assembled at a small town of the Benjamin tribe (south of Jerusalem), prior to being led away into Babylonian bondage. Being a witness to this event, Prophet Jeremiah depicts it like the weeping of Rachel for her children, who were being led away to death. Saint Matthew sees in this a symbol of the actual loss of Rachel’s children, who are buried close to Bethlehem.

In as much as the precise date of Christ’s birth is not known, there is no definite data as to how long the Holy Family lived in Egypt. However, it clearly and definitively shows that soon after the death of Herod, the Holy Family returned to the land of Israel — and this date can be regarded as more or less established. As Joseph Flavius witnesses, Herod died in dreadful agony in March or the beginning of April, in the 750^th year from the founding of Rome. If we allow that Christ was born on the 25^th of December, in the 749^th year from the founding of Rome, then the Holy Family would have spent some 2 months in Egypt. If we estimate (as some do) that Christ was born earlier, in 748, then it can be said that they lived there over a year, and that the God-Child was nearly 2 years old when He returned from Egypt. In any case, He was still an infant — as the Angel called Him when he directed Joseph to return to Israel. Upon their return, Joseph apparently decided to settle in Bethlehem, where, as it seemed to him, the Son of David — future Messiah-Christ — had to be brought up. However, upon hearing that Archelaus (the worst of Herod’s sons), who was bloodthirsty and cruel (similar to his father), was reigning over Judea, he “was afraid to go there.” Having received a new warning in a dream, he headed toward the boundaries of Galilee (where he used to reside previously) and settled in the township of Nazareth, where he pursued his trade of carpentry.

The Evangelist views this as a fulfilment of the prophecy, that the Lord Jesus Christ “shall be called a Nazarene.” However, the prophecy itself cannot be found in the Old Testament. There is a conjecture that this prophecy may have been in a Book that was lost by the Jews. Another opinion is that the Evangelist is not referring to any specific prophesy, but has in mind the general character of all the prophecies about the humiliating circumstances of Christ-Saviour, during His earthly life. To be from Nazareth is to be despised, humiliated, rejected. On the other hand, people called Nazarenes in the Old Testament, were those that have devoted themselves to God; maybe this is the reason why Jesus Christ was called a Nazarene, as the highest legate of Nazarene vows — total dedication of Himself to serving God.